Transcript Gottfredson and Hirschi

Gottfredson and Hirschi
The Generality of Deviance
Criminologists complain that they don’t
control their own dependent variable
 What is the D.V. in criminology?
 Is this unique to criminology?
– What about other fields?
– SO WHAT?
“Classical Tradition” Vs.
“Positivistic” Tradition
 Classical School of Crime
– All human behavior driven by a “hedonistic calculus”
– Therefore, how do you prevent undesirable behaviors?
 Positive School of Crime
– Human behavior is “determined” by social, biological,
or psychological forces (radical empiricism)
– Search for unique causes to specific behaviors
Classical School Revisited
 Individuals’ behaviors are controlled through
sanctions.
– The “mistake” of current criminology is to
focus only on “political sanctions”
– But others were articulated
• Moral
• Religious
• Physical
HERE IS THE HOOK
 The sanctioning system is only useful for
describing a behavior.
– i.e., assault is “illegal,” or alcohol abuse is
“deviant”
– it has no bearing on what factors might cause
the particular act
– the theory of sin IS the theory of crime,
deviance and imprudence
Where the Positivists Failed
 Made the assumption that each type of
behavior required a different type of
explanation
– “Property crime” different from “drug use” or
“violent crime”
– Tried to create a web of cause and effect with
different forms of deviance and crime (drug and
alcohol use causes violence)
The “Big Picture” that they
missed
 Crime, deviance, sin, and recklessness are
not separate, or distinct “types” of behavior
– Crime: a behavior sanction by the state
– Deviance: a behavior sanction by society
– Recklessness: natural sanctions
 According to G&H, a better question is,
“what do these behaviors have in
common?”
The Generality of Deviance
 All of these acts are pleasurable (but so are
non-criminal acts)…
– They have immediate consequences
– They are physically and mentally easy
– They are risky
G&H’s Definition of Crime
 The use of force or fraud in pursuit of self-
interest
– Does this cover all crime?
 Behaviors “analogous to crime”
– Car accidents, adultery, alcohol and drug use
What is the Main Point?
 Don’t get caught up in “deviance” versus
“crime” or “recklessness.”
– Those labels simply describe societies reaction
to behaviors
– Look instead at the commonality
 The recognition that “deviance is
constructed” has little bearing on theories
designed to predict crime or deviance